Abnormalities Present Decades Before Diabetes Diagnosis

(HealthDay News) -- Risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) is associated with subtle elevations of glucose and lipids more than 20 years before diagnosis, according to a study published online in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.

Håkan Malmström, from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and colleagues assessed data from 296,428 individuals participating in the Swedish AMORIS cohort. All had a fasting glucose from a health exam during the baseline period (1985 to 1996) and were followed through 2012.

The researchers found that 28,244 new T2D cases were identified over the study period, yielding an average 20-year risk of 8.1%. Overweight and obese subjects and those with elevated fasting glucose (fGlu) and triglycerides (TG) had a substantially increased risk among both men and women. More than 20 years before diagnosis, T2D cases had higher mean body mass index, fGlu, and TG versus controls. The difference in fGlu between those who developed T2D and controls increased over time.

"This suggests that diabetogenic processes tied to chronic insulin resistance operate for decades prior to the development of T2D," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.